In magnetic recording/reproduction devices (such as video tape recorders (VTRs) and digital audio tape recorders DATs) for business use and some for private use, various controls were carried out by recording a cue signal on a magnetic tape and detecting that cue signal at reproduction. This cue signal becomes a mark of its position to be recorded at the starting point or ending point of a program, or at a splice of an edition, or at a starting point or ending point of repeated reproduction, for example. By using such a cue signal, it is possible to control the automatic operation of multiple magnetic recording/reproduction devices, automatic editing, automatic repeated reproduction and the like.
In Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 61-8773 (G11B20/10), a structure is disclosed where the address code and cue signals are recorded/reproduced by frequency division multiplexing using the same track to improve the usage efficiency of the tape in the control operation of a magnetic recording/reproduction device, for example.
In the conventional art disclosed in the above mentioned laid-open application, envelope detecting circuits and pass filters for each signal are necessary to separate the address code and the cue signal during reproduction, leading to a problem that the structure of the magnetic recording/reproduction device becomes complicated and costly. Furthermore, there was a problem that it was difficult to efficiently record/reproduce both address code and cue signal due to the fact that two signals or information having significantly different frequencies are recorded/reproduced by the same record/reproduction system in the above mentioned conventional art. When the record and reproduction characteristics of the above mentioned record/reproduction system are conformed to either the address code or the cue signal, the efficiency of record and reproduction of the other signal is deteriorated. It was also difficult to completely separate the address code and the cue signal at the time of reproduction because the address code and the cue signal were recorded by frequency division multiplexing in the above mentioned conventional art. This resulted in the problem that either of the separated address code or the cue signal is mixed with the other signal, leading to more noise.